sunshinedaisybliss

This would have been stunning if it weren't for the violet.. damnit, my skin is just amping the violet over everything else. I was really hoping that wouldn't happen, but alas it did and so Lucretia will need to find another home

Alas poor Yorick, you smell like composted soil. This is absolutely dead-on in both description and intent, and a very smooth blend, but I can't be wearing it - just not my thing.

On me, this is soapy yellow flowers. It's quite rich and sweet, and I do get the slight tinge of rain but not so much the citrus... it's really soapy yellow flowers. Almost like a baby shampoo smell, which is nice and all but not for me.

Yep - egg nog and coffee, that it is! I like this much better than Egg Nog '07, there's a nutmeg-kinda vibe to this, and a lovely creaminess, that makes this yummier. It doesn't last long on my skin though, and goes slightly soapy, but the coffee sticks around

This is gorgeous - definitely woody, almost waxy in a coconut kind of way (without smelling like coconut!) - the cocoa and the fig are beautiful together.. not as prominent as I was hoping, but really velvety and yummy. The name here is, I think, very apt - this is an intriguing scent indeed, very lovely!

Lovely - this is exactly what it says.. white musk, sharp apricot, and orange blossom. On me, the apricot is pretty dark though, not sweet, and the orange blossom is the least present of the three. I'd say this is a must-have for any lovers of apricot blends!!

The banana in this is that 'fake' kind of banana, like the bright yellow syrup that you get slathered all over your icecream in a kid's restaurant. Sweet, but not sickly. I prefer the smell of 'real' banana, like when you're baking banana muffins or a banana cake, but this is sensationally ridiculous and absolutely suited to its theme. After the initial blast of banana (actually, that's BANANA).. the metallic note makes an appearance but it's not sharp - it seems to have an old sense about it, like rusted metal. I can't pick the blood as an individual note here, everything is very well blended, but I know it's there I really love this blend, partly because it's just so different - I can't say I've ever smelt anything like it before - and partly because who doesn't love anything inspired by The Toxic Avenger, but mostly because it's YUM. YUM!!

Wow.. as soon as I opened up the imp... marzipan!! For the first few minutes on my skin.. very strong marzipan - this is almond, and lots of it!! 15 minutes later, that initial blast of marzipan has calmed down, but the almond is still very strong. I think I smell the myrrh purring away in the background there, but no sign of the musk yet. Woo hoo! 30 minutes in.. the almond has powdered right down and the lovely myrrh has come out on top. The musk has finally made an appearance and it's definitely a dark musk, slightly smoky. After 45 minutes, everything has really softened up and faded - unfortunately this didn't keep the lovely richness it had at the 30-minute stage, now it's quite faint and slightly soapy. I just checked it again, it's been on 2 hours now, and I can barely tell where it is on my arm. Nice while it lasted!

This ends up going very soapy on me.. clean and fresh, but also slightly sweet and golden. It's pretty, but not something I can see myself wearing.

Well poo. In the bottle, this smells all rich and delicious but when it hits my skin.. not so great. The leather is the most predominant note, but it's not a nice musky leather - it's a sharp and bitter leather. I'm getting none of the sweet vanilla licorice that other reviewers have mentioned.. darn it.. that's what I was hoping for most of all. Really I'm just getting the leather, maybe some of the coal and dust. It's not unpleasant or nasty smelling at all - it's just not what I was hoping for. I'll test it again later to see if I get a different result, but unless the licorice comes out to play then I think Mr Fouettard will need to find a new home.

I am sooooo happy to have this! The fragrance from this spray is stunning.. the wood and leather are rich and intoxicating, and the stout adds a touch of syrupy sweetness that mingles beautifully with the patchouli. Coal dust.. yep, I get that too - it's not strong, but there's just a hint of old fireplace here. I don't get straight-up vanilla, which is just fine because that would never have worked, but there's still a vanilla presence in there. I'm also getting something like apple cider - very faint, but it's there. If I were to live in a log cabin in the woods, I would want it to smell like this. All the time. And I totally agree with previous reviewers - there's something very sexy man about it.. should I ever discover a man that actually smells like this, he'll be in big trouble. This stuff is so delicious that I've taken to spritzing it in the air and then standing under where I sprayed so that some of it lands in my hair and on my clothes - if you haven't tried that yet.. do it! Then smell your hair! ahem. Yeah, it's good

Reviewing the 2008 version.. and, well, I'm disappointed - this had all the ingredients for win and I was hoping for golden resin-y browns, but on me this is quite white, floral and cologne-y. It had moments of lovely amber richness and for a moment there I thought the tonka was finally coming out to cancel that cologne thing, but nope.. it didn't happen. Sad

This is a really interesting blend.. it really does have an Asian feel to it, which I'm attributing to the Chinese musk or perhaps the bamboo - it's got a top note that's very spicy without being obviously spicy (if that makes sense?!?). Lovely lovely rich brown wood, slightly nutty, the fabulous fig is rich and velvety, the other notes are obviously mixed in there somewhere but I'm unable to pick them out separately.. except maybe the chamomile, which I think makes an appearance after about 30 minutes on my skin. I suspect this one will get better with more age, when the woods deepen and the walnut/fig softens up and blends more with the woods. I'm not sure that I need a bottle just yet, so I'll be testing from my decant again in a few months' time to see how it's changed.

For the first little while when this was on my skin, it was all glorious resin-y almost waxy coconut with a warm wood undertone. Then it went into a really soapy kinda coconut with a slightly sweet tone, and after about 20 minutes became very sweet almost like a waxy honey. One hour in, and now it's a soft powdery coconut with just a touch of the resin-y vibe still drifting through it - the sweetness has calmed down but the warm of the wood is still there. Like MelanieSuzanne mentioned in her review, this is gives me a calming feeling.. it's quite mellow and soothing. I would have been happier if the frankincense, myrrh and cedar had played a stronger part - I found the sweet soapiness of the coconut distracting. I wonder if aging will change the balance.. I'll just have to wait and see

Sniffing this in the bottle is like an explosion of strawberry and anise! Bright, rich and very berry!! On my skin, at first it's very much strawberry and rose but about 10 minutes later those have settled down and now there's a deeper berry (which I assume is huckleberry, never having actually smelled it), and the frankincense is soft and woody here - it's all very rich and lush right now. But then 30 minutes later I can still smell the rose, and the strawberry is still there too but it's developed a 'fake' kinda strawberry tone to it.. that's a shame, it was more rich and sweet when it first went on. No sign of the anise now either One hour in - the strawberry's still there but now I can also smell the violet, which to be honest I wish had stayed away because it's making the whole thing a bit sickly. My final verdict? Hmm.. undecided - I wish it had stayed the way it was at about the 10 minute point. I think I'll try this another day and see whether I get a different result.. I'd like less of the sweet and more of the frankincense and anise,

Mmmmm... in the bottle, beautiful berries and pomegranate with just a hint of green When it first goes on my skin, it's mostly pomegranate but not a sweet type, more a musky kind. The blackberry's there too, and very faint is the bergamot. I can't actually smell any patchouli on its own, but I think that's what's behind the musky dryness of the fruit. Half an hour in, it's all dark fruity berries and the heliotrope is there now, so it's sweetened up a bit. After an hour, it's faded down nicely into a very musky soft berry. A masterful blend!

I am ridiculously thrilled to have scored a bottle of this!! Deranged indeed.. on me, it's all smoky sexy leather. The pine and mosses are hanging in the background, adding a slight twinge of green earthiness but the patchouli and cinnamon are on top. There's a waxy wood kinda thing going on here too, giving it all a lovely warm richness. It starts off quite masculine but softens up as it dries down.. after one hour on my skin it mellowed into a gorgeous woody leather.. and after another hour it's still there in pretty much the same style but starting to fade. I'd need to reapply this approx. every two hours to keep the spices, they're the notes that disappeared the most quickly when it was on my skin. Do geeks really smell like this? Clearly I need to investigate that further.

Well.. I seem to be the odd one out here - on me, this is all sweet, warm and spicey apple cider. I can definitely get the cardamon and cinnamon, but sadly no sign of the tangerine or cherry. I really can't find the black tea either, but my guess is that it's the amber musk at play here.. my skin loves amber musk but it tends to morph other notes for me. But apple? Very odd. So yeah.. there it is, completely lovely but totally unlike what I was expecting.

I received this as a stealth frimp in my Lab order.. I would never have picked Love Lies Bleeding, because of the "bloom" in the description. I thought.. florals. Ohhhhh boy - was I wrong!! If you had asked me to pick the notes in this, I would have said cocoa, cherry, dragon's blood and red musk. Smooth and velvety, warm and lush. Good grief, it's delicious! I could smell this as soon as I opened the imp to test it. When I dabbed it on, the fragrance wafted up in a delicious cloud before I even leaned in to sniff it. I think I may have said an impolite word at that point. After about a half-hour on, something kinda coconut-y is coming out, that may just be the cocoa mellowing out. Still cherries and musky. Two hours in, and it's all softened down beautifully but still holding all the notes - lovely. This is ridiculously delicious velvety sexy scrumptiousness.

Firstly, big going out to Tapestry, who sold me her 1/2 bottle of this lovely lady. Like many others, I'd been lusting after her for a while I really LOVE the way this smells in the bottle. I wanted to drink it. It's all dark peppery velvet raspberry and pomegranate - sweet with a menacing edge, like a very very VERY good hideously expensive voluptuous red wine. And then it hits my skin. The same rich rudeness is there, but now I can smell the rose musk and it's not as heady as it was in the bottle. The gardenia is just a bit too obvious for my liking, it's overriding the reds and purples. Give it time.. Ok - an hour in. Now the gardenia has settled, and remains only in spirit. The plum is in full force, with the blood, and now I can also smell the patchouli. The raspberry and pomegranate are hanging in there, just around the edges. Two hours in - much the same, but much fainter on my skin now. I wish the heady voluptuous stage had stayed a bit longer, but this is one intoxicating blend.. I will be treasuring every drop.

Mmmmmm. MMMMMMMMMMM. Yum! The coffee here is lovely - this reminds me a little of El Dia de Reyes but without the brown sugar. If there really was a group of dogs playing poker, smoking pipes and drinking Irish coffee - this is how the room would smell after they'd left, having spilled the Irish coffee all over the wood and tapped their burnt pipe tobacco out on to the floor. I found that it goes on strong, with a very rich blast of the rich sugary Irish coffee, but within about 10 minutes the wood and the tonka come out and the coffee blends in more evenly. At the half-hour stage, the smoke is now there. At the two-hour stage it's all just blended together beautifully but quite faint on my skin - mostly it's the coffee (still) and smokey wood that I can smell.

For a blend inspired by such a macabre tale, this is incredibly delicious and lovely. Pomegranate is always a friend to me.. when I first put this on, it's by far the strongest note - almost bubble-gum like in its richness but don't let that put you off if you're not a bubble-gum kinda person - my skin amps pomegranate like crazy. Half an hour later, ahhh... leather and tonka bean. Nice - the pomegranate has softened now and gone more fruity than its original pink bubble gum, perhaps the boiled wine has something to do with that. I'm not picking up the blood note at all though, but the overall effect now is a leathery grape with a touch of spice. Two hours later - all soft and pretty, just a less strong version of where it was at the half-hour point. Very enjoyable.

Ohhhh how I love my snakes! But I had been avoiding this one, because mint and I have a very tumultuous relationship whereby any BPAL that contains mint gets on my skin and turns me into a walking tube of toothpaste. But then I discovered Monsterbait Tokyo Stomp, which totally loves me and the mint worked well. So I figured perhaps I should re-think my stance on the mint issue and give GTT a try. YAY! It's a win!! I love how the Snake Oil is still there, but the mints here are stunning - clean, crisp and slightly chocolate-ish. I'm guessing it's the green tea that's mellowing out the mints and stopping that toothpaste thing from happening - well, that and the snake oil base. Two hours later - the mints have softened down beautifully.. the snake oil is more prominent now but still with that minty flavour. I can see this being perfect for hot summer days - it's still the dirty sexy snake oil we know and love, but with the crisp fresh excitement of mint. I'm ending this review right now, because suddenly I feel like I'm writing copy for a Mentos commercial

So it's official - I love ALL of the Le Mat trio! But if I had to pick a least favourite of the three.. Coxcomb would be it. Not because it's "bad" or anything, but just because the other two are so divine. The Moroccan musk is strongest on my skin - the red currant is there, but quite soft. I'm not really picking up the sage at all, and the frankincense is subtle. After about an hour on, I can barely detect where the oil was - it dries down to a very subtle musky fruit spice. I'm not that enthralled with Coxcomb on its own - it just doesn't have much staying power on my skin. But put it with the other two Le Mat blends and it provides a beautiful foundation for the craziness of Motley and the fruity goodness of Marotte.

Black currant, rhubarb, mushroom, champaca, and myrrh. Well.. this is completely unlike any other BPAL I have experienced to date! I had no idea what this was going to smell like, but I am so glad I got a bottle because as VioletChaos said.. total.love. Rhubarb, blackcurrant, mushroom.. who'da guessed those three together would be so awesome!?! The sour syrupy tang of the rhubarb is balanced beautifully by the sweet darkness of the blackcurrant, and the myrrh is just purring away in the background keeping the whole thing all warm and velvety. I'm guessing it's the mushroom that's adding the powdery feeling to this, and stopping it from going completely purple fruity. Champaca - well, you know how that is.. all sexy warmth and musky creaminess. I can see how this might go horribly wrong on some people.. particularly if your skin has a tendency to turn things into the dreaded plastic note, but I couldn't be happier with Motley - it's completely unique and unbelievably sumptuous. And incredible when layered with its mates; Marotte and Coxcomb. Much kudos to Beth & team on this one, I'm smitten.